Career Karluka

Karluk's career. A satirical novel (Russian Кандидат наук, Kandidat sciences) - a novel by the Soviet writer Gavril Trojepolski from 1958. Polish edition appeared in 1960 in the translation of Henryk Broniatowska. It was the first novel by the author (previously he wrote stories).

The novel (the action is set in 1953) is a sharp satire on bureaucratic relations in Soviet science and agronomy. The main negative heroes are Karp Stiepanowicz Karluk (a candidate for science, a peasant of the middle class and a coward during the war), Irakliy Kiprianowicz Podsuszka (his collaborator, lizus and vasodilator) and Yefim Tarasovich Chernocharov (professor of agronomy). They all represent an extremely bureaucratic approach to growing the earth, living in the world of scientific theories (often changing with political decisions), in complete isolation from the agricultural practices and the actual problems of collective farming (Some scholars, understand, scholars of the margin of science, This is a subversion of the theory ... Only the right theory of Williams ... You have to prove, you understand, you have to prove that alfalfa is growing there.) They are a hard-to-kill caste of hardship, hindering work and slowing down the development of the country. Scientific titles are acquired through political loyalty and decision-making circles. The author ridicules, for example, the artificially crafted titles of their work and dissertations, and the structures in which they are employed (eg the Interstate Office for Feeding Matters, ie, the Mebot Dogs). On the other side of the barricade are real practitioners, people for whom the cultivation of land is a life-long challenge. They want to increase their productivity in kolkhoz. Nikolay Pietrowicz Gałkin (chairman of the kolkhoz, who long ago talked privately with Lenin) and Filip Ivanovich Yegorov - brave soldier of the homeland war, landlord of love and critic Karluk. The opposition between the two groups is the canvas of the book. At first, the ruthless and the bureaucrats are triumphant (Yegorov loses even the party legitimacy), but over time the real agronomist wins. The 20th Congress of the CPSU helps in this. Criticism is rigidly held by the theory (eg, baldness), and praised the flexible application of the rules, depending on the field conditions of the collective farm. Bibliography

wiki